Baseball: A Two-Way Player

"Guanglai, I want to introduce you to Mr. Ikezaki Takakazu, the current batting coach of our Yakult Second Team, who specializes in helping professional players enhance their hitting skills."

Beside Yamada Tetsuro stood a moderately built middle-aged man, around 1.8 meters tall, greeting Lin Guanglai, making him feel both surprised and honored.

Truth be told, as soon as Lin Guanglai saw the man's face, he knew he was right to come today—after all, the person before him is the renowned "Mr. Swallow" of the Yakult Swallows!

Growing up in Tokyo, Lin Guanglai is quite familiar with the Swallows team stationed at Shengong Stadium:

The so-called "Mr. Swallow" is an honorary title established by the Yakult Swallows, awarded only to the most outstanding and exemplary hitters of the team, empowering them to wear the team's "No. 1" jersey—over the team's 60-plus years history, only four individuals have received this honor, including Aoki Naoki who was awarded just last year.

Standing before him, Ikezaki Takakazu is the second historical "Mr. Swallow," who wore the No.1 jersey for eight years straight.

During his playing days, Ikezaki Takakazu was a famous slugger in Nihon Professional Baseball, achieving the 30-home run mark for five consecutive seasons, with a career total of 1521 hits and a record of 304 home runs, still holding the top historical rank for the Yakult Swallows to this day.

More importantly, besides his own batting prowess, Ikezaki Takakazu possesses considerable successful experience as a batting coach—not every power hitter can transition into an excellent batting coach, but clearly, the person before him is not one of those.

After retiring, Ikezaki Takakazu received an invitation from his mentor, the famed player and manager Nomura Katsuya, to serve as the first team's batting coach for the Rakuten Golden Eagles, during which time he cultivated one Home Run King and two League Batting Champions, undeniably demonstrating high-level competency.

Lin Guanglai thought that Yamada Tetsuro had surely found a professional-level coach, but he certainly hadn't anticipated that it would be a batting coach of Ikezaki Takakazu's caliber.

With grateful eyes, Lin Guanglai looked toward where Yamada Tetsuro was, then hurriedly stepped forward, bowing respectfully to greet Coach Ikezaki Takakazu—an opportunity of this magnitude must be seized with care.

As for Ikezaki Takakazu himself, in one aspect, as the Second Team batting coach, he already had a favorable impression of Yamada Tetsuro due to his hard work in training, serious attitude, and remarkable performance in matches, their cooperative relationship being quite good; therefore, he had no reason to refuse the favor requested.

From a slightly more pragmatic standpoint, Japanese professional baseball circles are essentially very focused on relationships and cliques—in Rakuten, because Nomura Katsuya was the first-team manager, Ikezaki Takakazu's status in the team naturally soared;

However, after returning to Yakult, despite being a distinguished player during his career, becoming a coach introduced some differences—players can swiftly garner status through on-field performance, but the long-term role of a coach rarely shows immediate results, inevitably requiring the construction of a personal network.

In Ikezaki Takakazu's view, Yamada Tetsuro has great talent and performed outstandingly in the Second Team, being promoted to the first team is merely a matter of time—extending a small favor now could benefit his future development.

Moreover, as a baseball professional, how could he not know who Lin Guanglai is? With the talent he's showing now, when he participates in the professional draft in a couple of years, he will surely be a major potential newcomer attracting competition among various teams—should he be chosen by the Yakult Swallows in the future, this kindness will have its reward.

Before the batting practice began, Ikezaki Takakazu posed a question to Lin Guanglai—a question he was also asked by the National Youth Team's batting coach when he was in the United States:

"Guanglai, what kind of hitter do you ultimately want to become?"

Although it's been more than half a year since then, with many matches experienced and Lin Guanglai currently entrenched in a developmental bottleneck, his answer has remained unchanged:

"Coach, I want to become a long-distance slugger who can immediately aid the team with home run after home run!"

Upon hearing this, Ikezaki Takakazu's face broke into a smile, especially Lin Guanglai's statement that "baseball is a sport that belongs to the sky," which elicited a fuller smile from him—as a coach skilled in mid-to-long-range hitting and whose personal philosophy aligns closely with this, Ikezaki Takakazu found the young man before him very much to his liking.

"Guanglai, next I'll share with you some insights I gained while learning from Professor Nomura and reflecting on my baseball career and Professor Nomura's id baseball philosophy—you can choose to listen or not, as it may not be entirely applicable to you."

"Though baseball driven by passion and the romantic spirit of men is thrilling, the real competition, in the end, is driven by data."

"Though data appears much colder than emotion, data never lies—it is especially true when we're at bat!"

"Pelvis, spine, shoulders—the extent of each bodily part's movement and angle deviation significantly impact our hitting results."

"To transfer all your power to the bat and powerfully drive the ball out of the field, you must maximally utilize every part of your body, optimizing every controllable aspect!"

"Next, I'll introduce you to a new batting system I've devised, which I have named the 'Twist Method'..."

Under Ikezaki Takakazu's guidance, Lin Guanglai started with the simplest training. Ikezaki Takakazu integrated his physical data, crafting a comprehensive improvement plan encompassing basic perception training, dynamic integration exercises, and practical simulation training—according to Ikezaki Takakazu himself, training through this procedure thoroughly for one or two years, provided the talent isn't overly lacking, will secure a stable foothold in the professional Second Team without issue.

This trip to Saitama, Lin Guanglai took advantage of the weekend, specifically requesting time off from Supervisor Izumi Minoru—the Kantou Conference's spring tournament will commence next week in mid-May.

For Lin Guanglai, who has learned new techniques, this upcoming match is just the right opportunity to assess the results of his learning.

He can hardly wait.